


Smells Like Home

by lostnoise



Series: Rising from the Ashes [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Introspection, M/M, Pack Feels, Pre-Mpreg, Sort-of kid fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-05
Updated: 2012-12-05
Packaged: 2017-11-20 10:00:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/584133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostnoise/pseuds/lostnoise
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek’s never happier than when he’s at home grilling with the entire pack.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Smells Like Home

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally posted to my tumblr as a sort of drabble and then I extrapolated and now it's this. Enjoy and maybe leave some feedback? :D

The pack’s been growing bigger and bigger lately, mostly because of Allison and Lydia and their respective mates (Scott and Boyd) and a complete lack of contraceptives. Derek is NOT about to have a talk about _condoms_ with his pack-members, who are adults now, so he leaves it in their courts to curb the pups coming out. Or, you know, _not_ curbing it as it were.

 

It’s not like Derek has a problem with having some kids around the old Hale house now that it’s been renovated and a couple additions have been added. It’s bigger, sturdier - reflective of what Derek remembers before the fire, but with a bit of everyone else in it too. It took two years, a lot of YouTube how-to videos, everyone pitching in, and then some time brooding (it wasn’t sulking, no matter what Stiles says) when he realized that the electrical and plumbing work would have to be done by a professional. But everyone helped.

 

Derek can’t go anywhere in the house without seeing Isaac and Scott laughing as they painted together, or without seeing Stiles laughing at Jackson when he smashed his thumb trying to hammer a nail in place. He’ll glance into the kitchen and see Erica and Allison putting in shelves while Lydia snaps at them, hand on her lower back since her stomach had been swollen with her first child. And he sees his family, too, how they used to be in this home. He sees his parents in the new den, and his sister on the porch swing with her hair swaying in the breeze, and his uncle out back sunbathing in the nude.

 

Peter was always kind of weird.

 

Now that his home is actually a home again, kids… kids are more than welcome, actually. And it’s too quiet without all of his pack there.

 

Derek flips the few steaks left on the grill since the rare ones have been pulled off already. Derek lets those steaks sit on a plate while he shuts the lid and steps back. Barbeques over the summer in Beacon Hills have become nearly indispensable for the pack.

 

Movement in the yard catches the attention of his green eyes and they flick up to watch Stiles running around with Lydia’s and Boyd’s oldest daughter, Cordelia – she has silky mocha-stained skin and a head of bouncy curls, and Lydia’s eyes. At three years old, Cordelia has an overabundance of energy so Stiles has taken to chasing her around and letting her chase him in return, complete with yelling and arm-flailing at a pace that would never be up to any standards of a wolf pack. Stiles would get eaten if he ever tried to run away from danger like that.

 

But the sight still makes Derek’s seemingly ice-clad heart melt just a little though he keeps his face set in its usual stony visage.

 

If Stiles took the bite… If only Stiles would become a wolf once and for all… Derek sighs to himself and glowers at the obvious state of affairs. Stiles wouldn’t be taking the bite, and he’d never be a wolf. Stiles likes being human. Hell, Derek likes Stiles being human.

 

They haven’t even talked about kids at this point, and Derek knows that Stiles is only twenty-two, just a year past being old enough to drink. He’s still in college, studying mythology and folklore and acing it and going to parties, and he’s really enjoying himself. Derek knows this. So Derek doesn’t want to push for kids even though he wants them. Derek doesn’t want to push Stiles away from him after it took them so long to get to this point.

 

Still, the thoughts aren’t ever far from his mind. How could they be with Allison pregnant with her second child, and with Lydia having given birth a couple months ago to a set of beautiful twin boys? The kids are always over, have nowhere else to go during pack meetings. And they’re pack. His pack.

 

So, naturally, Derek  _loves_  having them over.

 

He’d never let Stiles watch them all at once, never in a million years, but when their parents are there to take them back if things get too scary, Derek will let himself relax, let himself smile and coo once or twice at a baby, will tickle Cordelia until she’s squirming out of his grip. He looks up sometimes at Stiles, eyes shining with mirth and smile wide and content, and his mate will have this expression of wonder on his face. Derek can’t read the expressions that Stiles makes so obvious every other time. He can’t even scent out the emotion and pin-point it. Derek doesn’t know what it means.

 

They haven’t talked about kids, they haven’t discussed it, but Derek wants to. It’s a little known fact that Derek likes kids, something he himself didn’t realize until Cordelia was born. Derek knows how good of a parent Stiles will be, and he can’t help but think about Stiles holding a little girl on his hip, their eyes and smile and laughter bright on a late and hazy summer afternoon like this. And Derek knows that even if Stiles doesn’t take the bite, even if Stiles doesn’t become Derek’s mate in every way he can, even if Stiles won’t carry their pups…

 

There’s always adoption.

 

There are few times when Derek lets down his guard, and even fewer instances that call for Derek’s happiness…

But there are some. At the hospital when one of the girls is giving birth to a new pack-member. When Jackson has a home game for varsity lacrosse and the pack meets up beforehand so they can caravan it to the university where they wrap themselves in blankets and cuddle for warmth. When Stiles comes up behind Derek while the older man is doing the laundry, and Stiles just hugs him from behind as he mumbles sweet loving words against the space between Derek’s shoulder blades. 

 

Derek’s never happier than when he’s at home grilling with the entire pack, all of their scents wafting around and blending until he can’t pick out one from another, doesn't _want_ to, because together? Together it all smells like _home_.


End file.
